Device to edit documents for printout and method thereof

ABSTRACT

A device and method of editing documents created in different application programs and stored in a storage unit of a printer to create a new document according to a minimum unit.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims benefit under 35 U.S.C. §119 from Korean PatentApplication No. 2004-104158, filed in the Korean Intellectual Propertyon Dec. 10, 2004, the entire contents of which are incorporated hereinby reference.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present general inventive concept relates to a device to editdocuments for printout, and more particularly, to a device to convertfiles created in diverse formats into files having a format for printoutand to edit the converted files to generate new documents in the formatfor printout, and a method thereof.

2. Description of the Related Art

Image printout devices, such as photocopiers, printers, etc., printimages on sheets of paper.

In particular, as the printers have multi-media functions, a variety ofmethods has been provided to conveniently use data created for printout.For example, there are known techniques for changing attributes of thedata for printout corresponding to documents. That is, the techniquesare accomplished with an additional function provided on a control panelof a printer in order for users to easily change attributes of the datafor printout corresponding to documents (referred to as ‘documents’)even in the printer.

Hereinafter, a conventional method for changing attributes of documentswill be described.

In general, a user creates the documents of various types, such as textdocuments, using an application program, and sends the documents to aprinter for printing. The user assigns attributes to the documents. Thedocuments can be secure documents (SD), general documents (GD), delaydocuments (DD), etc., depending on the attributes assigned to thedocuments, and the user assigns one of the attributes to the documentsif required.

The secure documents (SD) refer to an attribute assigned to confidentialdocuments requiring users to input a password before printing. When theuser creates a secure document, assigns a password to the securedocument, and stores the secure document, the password is generallyprocessed into a printer job language (PJL), inserted in a header of thesecure document, and codified. In a printer having a securityauthentication function, the password of the secure document is comparedwith a password input by a user, and the document is printed out by theprinter if the user-input password and the secure document password arematched. Thus, to print the secure document, the printer has to have thesecurity authentication function.

The general documents (GD) refer to an attribute of documents that canbe printed without any password, unlike the secure documents. The delaydocuments (DD) refer to an attribute assigned to documents that areprinted with a time delay set by the user.

The user-assigned attributes are added to a header portion of thedocuments and stored in an internal memory, and the stored attributes ofthe documents are referred to when the documents are printed.

FIG. 1 is a flow chart illustrating a conventional method for changingan attribute of documents stored in a printer.

In a step S10, if a document attribute change command is received from auser, document attributes, user names, and document titles are read fromheader portions of the documents stored in a memory of the printer, anddisplayed on a Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) unit of a control panel (notshown) of the printer.

In a step S20, the user selects a document from listed documents tochange the document attributes. In detail, if the user wishes to changethe document attributes, the user clicks on the selected document, andpresses an attribute change button (not shown). If the user presses theattribute change button, the control panel displays a window promptingthe user to select one of the secure documents, general documents, anddelay documents.

In a step S30, if the user wishes to change the document attribute toconvert a secure document into a general document, the step 30 requeststhe user to input a password in order to decide whether the user-inputpassword matches a password added to the header portion of the securedocument.

If the user-input password matches the password included in the headerportion of the secure document, the user can change the documentattribute of the secure document.

In a step S40, the user can change the document attributes of theselected documents. If the user wishes to delete some documents, theuser can press a delete button (not shown) to delete the correspondingdocuments. Further, if the user wishes to change the attributes toconvert the general document into the secure document, the user selectsthe general document to be converted into the secure document, and typesthe password in a ‘password input’ window. If the user presses an OKbutton, the general document is changed into the secure document.Further, if the user wishes to change the attributes to convert thegeneral document into the delay document and the user selects thegeneral document to be changed into the delay document, a ‘delay timeinput’ window appears. If the user types a time delay and presses the OKbutton, the general document is changed into the delay document.

As stated above, the techniques for changing the attributes of thedocuments that are stored in the memory of the printer are used asmethods to conveniently change the created data for printout. However,changing the document attributes does not mean editing or changing datawhich is content of the documents. That is, the techniques change onlyattributes deciding when and how to process the documents, but do notchange the content of the documents, nor edit and change the documentscreated in different formats (applications).

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present general inventive concept provides a device to easily editdocuments for printout created on a terminal in different applicationprograms (formats) and to create new documents, and a method thereof.

Additional aspects and advantages of the present general inventiveconcept will be set forth in part in the description which follows and,in part, will be obvious from the description, or may be learned bypractice of the general inventive concept.

The foregoing and/or other aspects of the present general inventiveconcept may be achieved by providing a method of editing documents on aprinter storing and printing one or more received documents, the methodcomprising displaying a list of documents stored in a storage unit ofthe printer, selecting one or more target documents from the displayedlist of documents, and editing the selected one or more target documentsto generate new documents.

The editing of the selected one or more target documents may compriseone of copying and deleting a minimum unit of each target documentstored in the storage unit.

The storage unit of the printer may be an external storage medium, suchas a hard drive (HDD) connected thereto.

The foregoing and/or other aspects of the present general inventiveconcept may also be achieved by providing a method of editing documentson a terminal connected to a printer and a network, the methodcomprising displaying on a display unit documents stored in the printer,selecting one or more documents from the displayed documents, editingthe selected one or more documents to generate new documents, andsending the generated new documents to the printer to print or store thesame therein.

The editing of the selected one or more documents may compriseperforming one of copying and deleting data of a minimum unit from thedocuments stored in the printer.

The foregoing and/or other aspects of the present general inventiveconcept may also be achieved by providing a method of editing documentson a terminal connected to a printer and a network, the methodcomprising selecting one or more documents to edit the selecteddocuments stored in the printer, inputting a command to edit theselected documents, sending the command to the printer, editing theselected one or more documents according to the command in the printerto create new documents.

The editing of the selected one or more documents may be performedaccording to a minimum unit of the selected one or more documents storedin a memory.

The foregoing and/or other aspects of the present general inventiveconcept may also be achieved by providing a device usable with a printerto store one or more received documents in a storage unit, to edit thestored documents, and to print the edited documents, the devicecomprising an input unit to select a new document-creating mode tocreate a new document, a display unit to display characters and a setupwindow corresponding to key inputs from the input unit, and a controlunit to list the documents stored in the storage unit on the displayunit in order to select at least one of the one or more documents to beedited so as to generate the new document, if the new document-creatingmode is selected through the input unit.

The control unit may edit the one or more selected documents byperforming one of copying and deleting data of a minimum unit from theindividual documents stored in the storage unit. The storage unit of theprinter may be an external storage medium, which can be an HDDconnectable to the printer.

The foregoing and/or other aspects of the present general inventiveconcept may also be achieved by providing a device usable with aterminal connected to a printer through a network to edit documents, thedevice comprising an input unit to select a new document-creating modeto create a new document, a display unit to display characters and asetup window corresponding to key inputs from the input unit, and acontrol unit to list the documents stored in the printer on the displayunit, to select one or more documents to be edited to generate the newdocument, if the new document-creating mode is selected through theinput unit.

The control unit may send the new document to the printer to print orstore the same.

The control unit may edit the one or more selected documents by one ofcopying and deleting data of a minimum unit from the documents stored inthe printer.

The foregoing and/or other aspects of the present general inventiveconcept may also be achieved by providing a device usable with aterminal connected to a printer through a network to edit documents, thedevice comprising an input unit to select one or more documents storedin the printer to edit, and to input a command related to the editing ofthe selected one or more documents, and a control unit to send thecommand to the printer, and to carry out the command in the printer tocreate a new document by editing the selected one or more documents.

The control unit carries out the command to create the new document inthe printer by performing one of copying and deleting data of a minimumunit from the documents stored in the printer.

The foregoing and/or other aspects of the present general inventiveconcept may also be achieved by providing a network system including astorage unit to store a first document having one or more first minimumunits and a second document having one or more second minimum units, anda controller to combine at least one of the one or more first minimumunits of the first document with at least one of the one or more secondminimum units of the second document to generate a new document.

The foregoing and/or other aspects of the present general inventiveconcept may also be achieved by providing a method of a network printersystem including storing a first document having one or more firstminimum units and a second document having one or more second minimumunits, and combining at least one of the one or more first minimum unitsof the first document with at least one of the one or more secondminimum units of the second document to generate a new document.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

These and/or other aspects and advantages of the present generalinventive concept will become apparent and more readily appreciated fromthe following description of the embodiments, taken in conjunction withthe accompanying drawings of which:

FIG. 1 is a flow chart illustrating a conventional method for changingattributes of documents stored in a printer;

FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating a structure of a network printersystem according to an embodiment of the present general inventiveconcept;

FIG. 3 is a flow chart illustrating a method re-formatting documentsaccording to an embodiment of the present general inventive concept;

FIG. 4 is a view illustrating a job-selecting window;

FIG. 5 is a view illustrating a job-editing window;

FIG. 6 is a flow chart illustrating a method of re-formatting documentson a terminal according to an embodiment of the present generalinventive concept; and

FIG. 7 is a flow chart illustrating a method of re-formatting documentson a terminal according to an embodiment of the present generalinventive concept.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

Reference will now be made in detail to the embodiments of the presentgeneral inventive concept, examples of which are illustrated in theaccompanying drawings, wherein like reference numerals refer to the likeelements throughout. The embodiments are described below in order toexplain the present general inventive concept while referring to thefigures.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating a structure of a network printersystem according to an embodiment of the present general inventiveconcept. In FIG. 2, the network printer system has a terminal 100connected to a network 300 and a printer 200. The printer may be anetwork printer.

The terminal 100 has a memory unit 110, application programs 120, aprinter driver 130, a control unit 140, an I/O interface unit 150, aninput unit 160, and a display unit 170. The terminal 150 may be a hostcomputer.

The application programs 120 are programs to generate document data,such as word documents, image documents, etc.

A user generates the document data corresponding to one or moredocuments using the application programs 120 and a menu to set printoutoptions. The printer driver 130 converts the document data into data forprintout that a printer can recognize, and the control unit 140 sendsthe data for printout to the network printer 200 through the I/Ointerface unit 150. In the network printer 200, the data for printoutmay be stored in a storage unit 230 or converted in a bitmap format. Thebitmap data stored in the network printer 200 is referred to one or more‘files’ each containing one or more pages to be printed. A process ofprinting the bitmap data or each file is referred to as ‘job.’ The oneor more documents correspond to the document data, the data forprintout, or the bitmap data.

The memory unit 110 stores various data generated in the applicationprograms 120, an operating program to control the terminal 100, andgraphic user interfaces (GUIs) of a job-selecting window (illustrated inFIG. 4) and a job-editing window (illustrated in FIG. 5) according tothis embodiment.

The input unit 160 is provided with one or more keys enabling the userto set various functions supported by the terminal 100. The input unit160 generates and sends various key data to the control unit 140. Inaddition to conventional keys, according to this embodiment, the inputunit 160 is provided with a menu key enabling the user to change modesto a printout mode or a new job-creating mode wherein the printout modeenables the user to print the bitmap data stored in the storage unit 230of the printer 200, that is, to execute the jobs, and the newjob-creating mode enables the user to edit the jobs, a cursor-movingkey, a delete key, and a selection key enabling a user to select jobs.

The I/O interface unit 150 interfaces the terminal 100 and the networkprinter 200 through the network 300 to send and to receive data.

The display unit 170 is controlled by the control unit 140 and maydisplay various windows related to operations performed by the terminal100. Further, the display unit 170 may display characters and setupwindows corresponding to the keys input from the input unit 160. Thatis, if the user selects the new job-creating mode using the menu key orthe input keys directly, the display unit 170 displays a job-selectingwindow 400 as illustrated in FIG. 4, and, if the user selects a job orone or more files, the display unit 170 displays a job-editing window500 as illustrated in FIG. 5.

The control unit 140 has a function of controlling components of theterminal 100, and, according to the present embodiment, the control unit140 enables the user to upload or read a document which is to be printedor stored as bitmap data in the network printer 200, so as to edit thebitmap data corresponding to the document in the application programs120, to store the edited bitmap data corresponding to the document as anew file, and to print the new file (document) using the network printer200 or to store the new file in the storage unit 230 of the networkprinter 200. Further, the control unit 140 may use an user interface(UI) program to build an EDIT window enabling the user to edit thebitmap data corresponding to the document, sends an editing-relatedcommand to the network printer 200 in order for the network printer 200to generate, print, or store the new file in the storage unit 230according to the editing-related command.

The network printer 200 includes an I/O interface unit 210, a controlunit 220, an input unit 260, the storage unit 230, a printer drivingunit 240, a printer engine unit 250, and a display unit 270.

The I/O interface unit 210 is connected to the network 300 to receivethe data for printout from the terminal 100, and to send the receiveddata for printout to the control unit 220 or to send the documentcorresponding to the bitmap data stored in the storage unit 230 to theterminal 100.

The storage unit 230 stores as the document the bitmap datacorresponding to the data for printout sent from the terminal 100,initialization programs, an operating program, etc., for the networkprinter 200. Here, the storage unit 230 stores the bitmap data convertedfrom the data for printout, together with information on printoutformats included in the data for printout. That is, even though files orthe document data of one or more pages can not be created into a singledocument format due to use of different applications in the terminal100, the files can be edited since the files are all stored in thestorage unit 230 as the bitmap data of the bitmap format. Here, thestorage unit 230 can be a memory or a hard disc. Further, the storageunit 230 stores the GUIs for the job-selecting window (illustrated inFIG. 4) and the job-editing window (illustrated in FIG. 5).

Hereinafter, the job-selecting window and the job-editing window will bedescribed with reference to FIG. 4 and FIG. 5.

The job-selecting window 400 is a GUI window displayed on the displayunit 270 if the job-creating mode or the new job mode is selectedthrough the input unit 260. The job-selecting window 400 includes ajob-list display unit 410 and a related key input unit 420. The relatedkey input unit 420 can be a touch panel for direct inputs, andcorresponding keys can be selected from the input unit 260 instead ofusing the key input unit 420 of the job-selecting window 400.

A process of selecting two different jobs and generating a new job willbe described hereinafter. The job-list display unit 410 displays a listof the bitmap data corresponding to one or more documents of one or morepages stored in the storage unit 230, that is, displays a job list. Eachjob corresponds to the bitmap data of the document of one or more pages.The job-list display unit 410 is built to enable the user to select oneor more target jobs from the job list using the related key input unit420, that is, first and second target jobs to be edited. Next, if thetarget jobs are selected, the job-editing window 500 (illustrated inFIG. 5) is displayed on the display unit 270.

As illustrated in FIG. 5, the job-editing window 500 displays a firsttarget job display part 510 having unit jobs stored as the first targetjobs which the user wishes to edit, and displays a second target jobdisplay part 520 having unit jobs stored as the second target jobs theuser wishes to edit. Here, a unit job refers to a minimum unit that canbe changed, stored, or displayed depending on a size of the storage unit230. That is, a page can be the minimum unit for the storage unit 230 inwhich each page is stored in bitmap format as a minimum storage amount,and a paragraph can be the minimum unit for the storage unit 230 if thejob is divided into paragraphs that can be stored, changed, or displayedseparately. The present embodiment is described with page-by-pagestorage, but, if the bitmap data corresponding to one page is dividedinto several unit paragraphs for storage, an edit job can be performedusing the unit paragraphs.

A new job-creating display part 530 displays the bitmap data in a unitof page that is copied, and the page-by-page bitmap data are added, asnew unit jobs, to a new job list and stored in the storage unit 230.

A related key input unit 540 displays keys that can be used on thejob-editing window 500. In the network printer 200, the job-editingwindow 500 may be displayed on a touch panel for direct inputs, andcorresponding keys can be selected through the panel instead of therelated key input unit 540.

Referring to FIG. 5, a new job of four pages is generated by adding orcopying pages #1, #2, and #3 of a job A and by inserting page #B of ajob B between the pages #2 and #3 of the job A. That is, the pages #1and #2 of the job A are first copied and added in order as the first andsecond pages of the new job, the page #B of the job B is copied andplaced as the third page of the new job, and the page #3 of the job A iscopied and added as the fourth page to the new job, through the relatedkey input unit 540. For a convenient explanation, the jobs of“PROTECT.doc” and “SECURITY.pdf” selected on the job-selecting window400 have been explained as the “job A” and the “job B,” respectively.

As stated above, even though documents may be created as the documentdata in different formats by different application programs 120 on theterminal 100, the data for printout corresponding to the documents canbe stored in the same bitmap format in the storage unit 230 of thenetwork printer 200, so that the bitmap data can be edited together onthe network printer 200.

The control unit 220 controls the network printer 200, and, inparticular, if the user selects the new job-creating mode through theinput unit 260, the control unit 220 controls the display unit 270 todisplay the job-selecting window 400 containing a list of jobs stored inthe storage unit 230. Further, if the user selects an edit job to createthe new job, the control unit 220 reads the job-editing window 500 fromthe storage unit 230 and controls the display unit 270 to display thejob-editing window 500. Next, if the user selects a printout mode, thecontrol unit 220 controls the printer driving unit 240 to print thecorresponding job.

The printer driving unit 240 drives the printer engine unit 250according to a control command of the control unit 220, and the printerengine unit 250 prints on sheets of paper the bitmap data correspondingto the data for printout that is received from the terminal 100according to the controls of the printer driving unit 240. In general,the printer engine unit 250 is provided with a paper feeder, aphotosensitive drum, a charger, a light-scanning device, a developer,and a transfer roller, but a detailed description of the components isomitted.

The input unit 260 is provided with a plurality of keys enabling theuser to set various functions supported by the network printer 200. Theinput unit 260 generates and sends various key data to the control unit220. In addition to the plurality of keys, the present embodiment isprovided with a menu key enabling the user to change modes to theprintout mode in which the user can print the jobs stored in a memory,and to the new job mode enabling the user to edit the jobs, acursor-moving key, a delete key, and a selection key. Here, instead ofseparate keys as in case of the terminal 100, one key can be used as aninput key for different commands according to a key input order. Theabove keys can be added as actual buttons in a hardware manner to apanel of the input unit 260, or can be installed in a software manner tobe used with a touch screen, such as a Liquid Crystal Display (LCD).

The display unit 270 is controlled by the control unit 220 to displayvarious operation states of the network printer 200. Further, thedisplay unit 270 may display characters and a setup window correspondingto the key data input from the input unit 260. That is, if the userselects the new job mode using the menu key or a direct input key, thedisplay unit 270 displays the job-selecting window 400, and, if the userselects the edit job, the display unit 270 displays the job-editingwindow 500. The display unit 270 can be an LCD unit, which may form apanel together with the input unit 260.

Hereinafter, a method of re-formatting (or editing) one or moredocuments according to the embodiment of the present general inventiveconcept will be described using the above described structure.

FIG. 3 is a flow chart illustrating the method of re-formatting orediting a document. Referring to FIGS. 2 and 3, the printer driver 130converts the created document data into the data for printout that thenetwork printer 200 can recognize, using the application programs 120and sends the data for printout to the network printer 200 through theI/O interface unit 150 and the network 300, so that the network printer200 stores in the storage unit 230 the data for printout sent from theI/O interface unit 210 (operation S310). The data for printout can bestored as the bitmap data.

The control unit 220 decides whether the user input a mode for creatinga new job through the input unit 260 (operation S312). If the user hasselected the new job mode in the operation S312, the control unit 220controls the job-selecting window 400 stored in the storage unit 230 tobe displayed on the display unit 270, so as to enable the user to selectat least one or more edit job modes (operation S314). The detaileddescription of selecting the edit job modes using the job-selectingwindow 400 is the same as the above-described mode. If the user hasselected the edit job mode in the operation S314, the control unit 220controls the job-editing window 500 stored in the storage unit 230 to bedisplayed on the display unit 270, and stores the newly created new jobin the storage unit 230 as new data for printout (operation S316). Thecontrol unit 220 enables the user to perform edit procedures, such ascopying, deleting, etc., with bitmap data according to a minimum unit(operation S318). Here, as described above, the data for printout or thebitmap data can be edited, copied, stored or displayed based on eachminimum unit, so that editing can be done with more precision if theminimum unit is smaller.

Every time a new job is edited, the control unit 220 stores the new jobas new bitmap data in the storage unit 230 through updating the storageunit 230 (operation S320). The jobs having one or more pages formed inbitmap data in the minimum unit are edited according to the minimum unitto create the new job having one or more pages of the bitmap data in theminimum unit.

If the editing mode is completed (operation S322), the control unit 220updates the list of jobs stored in the storage unit 230, and stores thenew job list in the storage unit 230. If the editing mode is notcompleted, the control unit 220 repeats the operations S318 to S322.

Next, if a printout command is input through the input unit 260(operation S326), the control unit 220 controls the printer driving unit240 to print the new job, so that the printer engine unit 250 prints thenew job. For example, the page #1, page #2, page #B, and page #3 of thenew job of FIG. 5 can be printed according to the printout command.

Although, the documents or files are edited in the network printer 200when the job-selecting window 400 or the job-editing window 500 isdisplayed on the network printer 200, the terminal 100 connected to theprinter 200 through the network 300 may upload and edit the documents orfiles stored in the network printer 200, create a new file, and send thenew file to the network printer 200, so as to print or store the newlycreated file.

FIG. 6 is a flow chart illustrating a method for re-formatting orediting a document in the terminal 100 of FIG. 2 according to anembodiment of present general inventive concept. Referring to FIGS. 2and 6, the control unit 140 of the terminal 100 decides whether the userinputs a mode for creating a new job through the input unit 160(operation S610).

If the user selects the new job mode in the operation S610, the controlunit 140 receives the list of the bitmap data stored in the storage unit230 of the network printer 200 (operation S612), controls thejob-selecting window 400 stored in memory unit 110 to be displayed onthe display unit 170, so that the user can select an edit mode to editat least one or more jobs (operation S614). If the user selects the oneor more jobs, that is, an edit job, the control unit 140 controls thejob-editing window 500 stored in the memory unit 110 to be displayed onthe display unit 170 (operation S616). The control unit 140 stores anewly created new job in the memory unit 110 as new data for printout,and enables the user to perform edit procedures such as copying anddeleting data according to the minimum unit of each job (operationS618). Here, the minimum unit can be a unit to be copied, deleted,stored, displayed as a unit job of each job as described above, so thatediting can be done as a volume of the minimum unit is decreased.

Every time a job is edited to create a new job in the terminal 100, thecontrol unit 140 stores the new job as the data for printout in thememory unit 110 by updating the memory unit 110 (operation S620).

If the editing of the job is completed (operation S622), the controlunit 140 updates the memory unit 110 with a new job list, and sends thenew job list to the storage unit 230 of the network printer 200(operation S624). If the editing of the job is not completed, thecontrol unit 140 repeats the operations S618 to S622.

Next, if the printout command is input through the input unit 160(operation S626), the control unit 140 controls the network printer 200to print the new job (operation S628).

Further, in another embodiment of the present general inventive concept,the terminal 100 may send an edit command to the network printer 200using an UI (user interface) window to create or store a new job in thenetwork printer 200.

FIG. 7 is a flow chart illustrating a method for re-formatting orediting a document on the terminal 100 of FIG. 2 according to anembodiment of the present general inventive concept. Referring to FIGS.2 and 7, the control unit 140 of the terminal 100 decides whether themode for creating a new job is input through the input unit 160(operation S710). If the user selects the new job mode in the operationS710, the control unit 120 displays the job-editing window GUI(operation S712), and enables the user to edit data according to aminimum unit (operation S714). Here, the job-editing window GUI providesan EDIT window enabling the user to input commands, for example,enabling the user to select a specific page, which is referred to as aunit job of the job, and a certain job out of a job list and to edit theselected job. For example the user can input a command for editing page#2 of “job A” and page #3 of “job B” to create the new job in which page#2 of job A and page #3 of job B are arranged as first and second pagesof the new job.

If the editing is completed in the operation S714, the control unit 140sends the edited command to the control unit 220 of the network printer200 (operation S718), and the control unit 220 enables the user to edita corresponding job according to the sent command and to store a new joblist having the new job in the storage unit 230 (operation S720). Next,if a command for printing the new job is sent (operation S722), thecontrol unit 220 controls the printer driving unit 240 to print the newjob through the printer engine unit 250. The above structure of thenetwork printing system is convenient for a user to edit the respectivejobs.

As aforementioned, the device and method of editing documents forprintout enables a user to easily edit the documents in different fileformats as one document by using bitmap files stored in the storage unitof the printer even though the user can not edit the correspondingdocuments as one document due to the different file formats on theterminal.

Although a few embodiments of the present general inventive concept havebeen shown and described, it will be appreciated by those skilled in theart that changes may be made in these embodiments without departing fromthe principles and spirit of the general inventive concept, the scope ofwhich is defined in the appended claims and their equivalents.

1. An image forming apparatus connectable to a host device executing aprinter driver, the host device to generate a first document using afirst application program and a second document using a secondapplication program, the host device using the printer driver to convertthe first document and the second document into a first printing datafile and a second printing data file and transmitting the first printingdata file and the second printing data file to the image formingapparatus, the image forming apparatus comprising: a communicationinterface to receive the first printing data file and the secondprinting data file from the host device; a storage unit to store imagedata files corresponding to the first printing data file and the secondprinting data file and according to print instructions received by theimage forming apparatus, each of the image data files containing one ormore pages of data to be printed and excluding print controlinstructions; a display unit to display a list of image data filesexcluding print control instructions stored in the storage unit; aninput unit to receive user input to select a first image data file and asecond image data file from the displayed list of image data filesexcluding the print control instructions, the input unit to receive userinput to select a merge option to merge the selected files and toreceive user input to designate a page location of the second image datafile in order to insert at least one page of the first image data file;a control unit to perform a merging operation to generate a new mergedfile by merging pages of the selected files in image data formataccording to the selected merge option; and a print unit to print thenew merged file on sheets of printing medium, wherein the mergingoperation is performed while the selected image data files exist in theimage data format that excludes the print control instructions.
 2. Theimage forming apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein the control unitsaves the created new merged file having no print instructions.
 3. Theimage forming apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein the input unit isoperable to receive a user command to print the new merged file.
 4. Theimage forming apparatus as claimed in claim 1, further comprising an I/Ointerface unit to communication with terminal devices via a network,wherein the first image data file and the second image data file storedin the storage unit correspond to print data received from the terminaldevices via the network.
 5. The image forming apparatus as claimed inclaim 1, wherein the first image data file and the second image datafile stored in the storage unit are generated via a scanning unit of theimage forming apparatus.
 6. The image forming apparatus as claimed inclaim 1, wherein the input unit selects one or more paragraphs to bedeleted from the selected first image data file and second image datafile, and the control unit generates a new merged file excluding printcontrol instructions by merging the selected one or more paragraphs fromthe selected first image data file and the second image data file. 7.The image forming apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein the inputunit is further operable to select a third image data file from thedisplayed list of image data files, wherein the control unit generates anew merged file excluding print control instructions by merging at leastone page of the selected third image data file to the selected first andsecond image data files.
 8. The image forming apparatus as claimed inclaim 1, wherein the input unit receives an instruction to print the newmerged file.
 9. The image forming apparatus of claim 1, wherein theinput unit is operable to select at least one delete page to be deletedfrom at least one of the selected first and second image data files, andwherein the control unit creates the new merged file by merging pages ofthe selected first and second image data files with pages deletedtherefrom according to the at least one delete page selected via theinput unit.
 10. The image forming apparatus of claim 1, wherein thestored image data file is divided into paragraphs that can be stored,changed, or displayed separately.
 11. A method of generating a firstdocument using a first application program stored in host device and asecond document using a second application program stored in the hostdevice and converting the first document and the second document usingan image forming apparatus into a first printing data file and a secondprinting data file and transmitting the first printing data file and thesecond printing data file to the image forming apparatus, the methodcomprising: sending the first printing data and the second printing datafrom the host device to the image forming apparatus; storing image datafiles corresponding to the first printing data file and the secondprinting data file in the image forming apparatus and according to printcontrol instructions received by the image forming apparatus, each ofthe image data files comprising at least one page of data to be printedand excluding print control instructions; displaying a list of imagedata files excluding print control instructions stored in the imageforming apparatus; selecting a first image data file and a second imagedata file from the displayed list of image data files that exclude printcontrol instructions; designating a page location of the second imagedata file in order to insert at least one page of the first image datafile; and merging the selected first image data file and second imagedata file at the designated page location using the image formingapparatus, wherein the merging of the selected first image data and theselected second image data is performed while the selected first imagedata and the selected second image data exist in an image data formatthat excludes print control instructions to generate a new merged fileincluding the first image data file merged with the second image datafile at the designated page location, and printing the new merged fileon sheets of printing medium.
 12. The method as claimed in claim 11,wherein the creating a new merged file that excludes print controlinstructions further comprises at least one of inserting a minimum unitof the selected second image data file into the selected first imagedata file and deleting a minimum unit of the one of the selected firstand second image data files.
 13. The method as claimed in claim 11,further comprising saving the new merged file as a new document thatexcludes print control instructions.
 14. The method as claimed in claim11, further comprising receiving a user input to print the new mergedfile.
 15. The method as claimed in claim 11, wherein the first imagedata file and the second image data file are stored in the storage unitin a bitmap format.
 16. The method as claimed in claim 11, wherein thefirst image data file and the second image data file stored in thestorage unit of the image forming apparatus comprise documents receivedfrom terminal devices via a network.
 17. The method as claimed in claim11, wherein the first image data file and the second image data filestored in the storage unit of the image forming apparatus comprisedocuments including at least one page of data to be printed generated byscanning an image medium using a scanning unit of the image formingapparatus.
 18. The method as claimed in claim 11, wherein the mergingfurther comprises identifying an insertion location in the selectedfirst image data file according to a user input, wherein at least oneportion of one of the selected first and second image data files isinserted to the first image data file at the identified insertionlocation.
 19. The method of claim 11, further comprising selecting atleast one delete page to be deleted from at least one of the selectedfirst and second image data files, and creating the new merged file bymerging pages of the selected first and second image data files withpages deleted therefrom according to a selected at least one deletepage.
 20. An image forming apparatus connectable to a host deviceexecuting a printer driver, the host device using the printer driver toconvert documents into printer-driver-converted data files andtransmitting the printer-driver-converted data files including printercontrol instructions to the image forming apparatus, the image formingapparatus comprising: a communication interface to receive theprinter-driver-converted files from the host device; a print unit toperform printing operations based on the receivedprinter-driver-converted files; a display unit to display a list ofimage data files stored in the image forming apparatus corresponding tothe printer-driver-converted files previously received from the hostdevice, the image data files excluding printer control instructions; aninput unit to receive user input to select a plurality of image datafiles from the displayed list, the input unit to receive user input toselect a merge option to merge the selected image data files excludingprint control instructions and to receive user input to designate a pagelocation where a first one of the selected files is to be inserted inrelation to pages of a second one of the selected files; and a controlunit to perform a merging operation to generate a new merged file bymerging pages of the selected image data files in an image data formatexcluding printer control instructions according to the user inputdesignating the page location, and to control the print unit to printthe new merged file on sheets of printing medium, wherein the mergingoperation to merge pages of the selected files is performed while theselected files exist in the image data format that excludes printercontrol instructions.
 21. The image forming apparatus of claim 20,wherein the host device generates a first document using a firstapplication program and a second document using a second applicationprogram, and the first document and the second document are generated bythe host device in a different data format, the host device using theprinter driver to convert the first document and the second documentinto a first printer-driver-converted data file and a secondprinter-driver-converted data file and transmitting the firstprinter-driver-converted data file and the secondprinter-driver-converted data file to the image forming apparatus, andwhen pages of a first image data file and a second image data file,corresponding to the first printer-driver-converted data file and thesecond printer-driver-converted data file, are merged by the controlunit, the first image data file and the second image data file are in asame image data format that excludes printer control instructions. 22.The image forming apparatus of claim 20, further comprising a storageunit to store the image data files corresponding to theprinter-driver-converted files previously received from the host device.